Dutch sprinter Casper van Uden claimed his first Grand Tour victory on his debut at a three-week race as he won stage four of the Giro d’Italia.
The first chance for the pure sprinters after a time trial and two punchy days in neighbouring Albania, this was always going to be a fast finale and it was the 23-year-old who came out on top in a chaotic finish in Lecce.
His Picnic PostNL squad came from nowhere inside the final kilometre as the peloton jostled for position, with van Uden launching a long-range sprint from 500m out and holding off the day’s favourite, Olav Kooij, and Maikel Zijlaard for the win.
Van Uden said afterwards, “I didn’t do it alone, we did it with the whole team, all the boys, all the staff back at HQ. They did super good. I didn’t have to take any wind until a bit more than 200 [metres] to go, and I know I have a good long sprint. I just went for it and hoped for the best.
“I know I just need to follow the boys. I’m really really happy to give them something back.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise [win], I know the boys and everyone really believe in me, sometimes I have to find that belief in myself a little bit. This helps.”
The peloton had the first of three rest days on Monday and resumed with a flat 189km run from Alberobello to Lecce, with a chaotic and nervy finale on a technical city centre circuit.
Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen kept hold of the leader’s pink jersey, finishing fourth on the stage, despite having to chase back on after getting caught out in a crash on the narrow, twisting route in Lecce.
His squad suffered a blow in the closing kilometres as lead-out man Soren Kragh Andersen crashed with 22km to go and appeared to be hurt, ultimately finishing 10 minutes behind the bunch.
Race favourite Primoz Roglic nicked two bonus seconds at the Red Bull kilometre sprint to cut Pedersen’s lead over him to seven seconds.
Stage four results
1) Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL), in 4:02:21
2) Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike)
3) Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro Cycling)
4) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
5) Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
6) Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
7) Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)
8) Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers)
9) Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5)
10) Enrico Zanoncello (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane), all at same time
General classification after stage four
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), in 11:44:31
2) Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +7”
3) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +14”
4) Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +21”
5) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +22”
6) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +25”
7) Max Poole (Team Picnic PostNL) +33”
8) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +34”
9) Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +36”
10) Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +40”
